Paul Gryniewicz, Synod Council Vice President 2021 update
2021 Assembly Reports: View reports for our 2021 assembly on our assembly report page and in this collection of blog posts.
Big changes are underway within the ELCA as are in all denominations across North America. They are not political or theological but more basic - what does it mean to be church? 2020 with its covid 19 has accelerated these changes.
As of December 31, 2020, there were 3.3 million baptized members in the ELCA organized into 8,900 congregations, and 65 synods. 56% of our members are over the age 50 and 44% under 50. There are approximately 89 congregations in the Grand Canyon Synod,
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o'clock on Sunday.” In 2019 the ELCA membership was approximately 97% white and 1% each blacks, Asians, and Hispanics.
The proportion of Americans who self-identify as members of a church, synagogue or mosque has dropped below 50 percent, according to a March 2020 poll from Gallup. It is the first time this has happened since Gallup first asked the question in 1937 when church membership was 73 %. In pre-pandemic days, 2019 15% of all Christian churches were adding members. 85% were losing members. Today it is common to have more family and friends who are not regular church attenders then do.
Now ask yourself does the ELCA ethnic makeup, the makeup of your home church match your circle of friends, neighborhood, school, or place of employment? If not, why not? Then ask why do you think so many people are leaving the church? What keeps you in church when so many others have left?
In a short span of 2 generations much in our society has changed. How we work, how we learn, how we travel, how we provide healthcare, how we communicate and how we entertain ourselves, etc. But one thing that has not changed dramatically up until 2020 is how we “do church.” Church acted as a glue holding our culture together while everything around us was changing.
Covod19 changed that and forced us to reevaluate how we do church. It catapulted church into the digital age. Many of our congregations now provide a form of hybrid worship, a combination of both on ground and virtual worship. The future is that most congregations will continue some sort of hybrid worship, both on-line and on ground programing.
Another change taking shape is we are moving from our buildings out into the streets where our neighbors are. After all the church has always been about relationships. We cannot love our neighbors unless we are with our neighbors. Each congregation must chart its own course to form new relationships based on their personality, strengths, and weaknesses. Each congregation will need to define success in their own terms. Increasing membership and dollars in the offering plate are no longer accurate measurement tools.
We are no longer a one size fits all church. There are no more 10 step programs to an effective church. Sad to say but youth groups and Sunday Schools are not our future as they once were. Neither is the latest music or worship entertainment. Our future is building relationships with our neighbors.
By now I hope you realize the work of being the new church, building relationships is from the ground up not the top down. It is you and me, not just Bishops and Pastors building this new community of followers of Jesus. A new church means finding new ways to tell our familiar Gospel stories in ways people who do not attend a church can appreciate. The secret is those people are hungry for the Good New and are looking for it. It is going to take a massive commitment of time and resources to make this happen. It will begin with a new partnership between clergy, laypeople, synod staff and church wide staff. We are free and called to be “Church Together.”
In closing, the church is changing. Just as it has many times in the past. God is reforming the church. Our call as members of the ELCA is to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit, be willing to change, to give up somethings that we hold near and dear, to make new friends and therefore make new disciples.
I can assure you that this is the best of times to be a ELCA Lutheran Christian. I thank the Lord that I am alive during times such as this.
—Paul Gryniewicz
Vice President, Grand Canyon Synod Council